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Safety Home
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The number 1 priority of the RPV city council
has to be the safety of its citizens and their property. When budgets
are set rational judgement is required but funding of the Sheriff's Department
cannot be traded off for any other non-emergency item. The '03-04 budget
of $2.75M (22% of the budget while many cities are over 40%) covers an
average of 4-5 general and traffic cars plus 3 Community Service cars
for 3 Peninsula cities. RPV has ~42,000 people and 143 miles of roads
and carries 60% of the total cost - about $70 per person per year.
While our overall crime rate is low it increased
by 11% last year-which may not seem significant unless you are one of
the ~50 new victims. The Sheriff's Department has recommended 1 additional
car for more visibility including monitoring in selected areas where speeding,
driver and pedestrian safety, school safety, etc are continuing problems.
This would cost the city about $100K per year or ~$2.50 per person but
does require coordination with the other 2 cities.
This also requires continued creative thinking
on the part of the cities and the Sheriff's Department to focus on those
areas with the greatest concentration of crime and traffic violations.
I will work to increase
the Sheriff Department's yearly budget from $2.75M to at least $2.85M
which is a small price to pay for better security and safety.
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